Mojo, The Bard, & Me

What would you have me do? I am a subject,

And I challenge the law:

Henry Bolingbroke    

King Richard The Second                    Act II, Scene iii, Line 119

Well this is a continuation of a bit of a speech that we touched on in an earlier post back in April. Here, if you can read that post it’ll give you a pretty good idea of what’s going on, and then I’ll give you Bolingbrokes’s full speech right here

As I was banish'd, I was banish'd Hereford;

But as I come, I come for Lancaster.
And, noble uncle, I beseech your grace
Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye:
You are my father, for methinks in you
I see old Gaunt alive; O, then, my father,
Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd
A wandering vagabond; my rights and royalties
Pluck'd from my arms perforce and given away
To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
If that my cousin king be King of England,
It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster.
You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin;
Had you first died, and he been thus trod down,
He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father,
To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the bay.
I am denied to sue my livery here,
And yet my letters-patents give me leave:
My father's goods are all distrain'd and sold,
And these and all are all amiss employ'd.
What would you have me do? I am a subject,
And I challenge law: attorneys are denied me;
And therefore, personally I lay my claim
To my inheritance of free descent.

 As you can see, Bolingbroke goes through quite a bit of very good argument here, and in the end, with today’s totally random line, he’s saying that he’s just doing what is legally his right to do. Now I’m not a lawyer but it certainly looks like Mr. Bolingbroke has a good argument. What do you think?

Here's a book on the American government. But I guess this wouldn't do Mr. Bolingbroke too much good since he was dealing with the laws of England, not America. Oh well.